Prayers Ancient and Modern 05/14

“I think of the love of God as a great river, pouring through us even as the waters pour through our ravine at floodtime. Nothing can keep this love from pouring through us, except of course our own blocking of the river. Do you sometimes feel that you have got to the end of your love for someone who refuses and repulses you? Such a thought is folly, for one cannot come to the end of what one has not got. We have no store of love at all. We are not jugs, we are riverbeds.” – Amy Carmichael

Published May 14, 2016 |

O God, who hast commanded us to be perfect, as Thou our Father in heaven art perfect: put into our hearts, we pray Thee, a continual desire to obey Thy holy will. Teach us day by day what Thou wouldest have us do, and give us grace and power to fulfill the same. May we never from love of ease, decline the path which Thou pointest out, nor, for fear of shame, turn away from it—Amen.

Henry Alford.

Grant, O Lord, that my petitions may always be for those things that may fit me to please Thee, and not for such as may be the fittest to please myself; and, for an accumulation of blessings, so influence my soul with Thy divine Spirit, that Thy will may ever be my pleasure—Amen.

Charles How (1661–1745).